Because I have a blog, I suppose I’m required to have an opinion on the new Apple iPad. For what it’s worth, I think it’s a game changer. Much like the iPod revolutionized how people listen to music, the new iPad will radically change how we read and percieve information.
We are at the crossroads between two types of textual media: Dead trees, which continue to have the advantage for long form presentation (try reading the New Yorker on a netbook — ick) and electronic devices, which are great for short snippets of contents, such as blog posts. The iPad will be fine at the latter, just like other devices like the iPhone, but will finally make it tenable to sit back and read something longer than a page on a portable device. The display (LCD backlit, and assuming Apple’s superiority in display quality) will be stunning, and the shape and size will be well suited for sitting back and reading — and more importantly, comprehending.
The implications of this are particularly interesting when you look at the current types of long form content: newspapers, magazine articles, and books. Each has a certain profile of timeliness, length, style, etc. There’s no reason that these categories need to continue. Could this be a new dawn for the short story? Could books (particularly non-fiction) be updated continuously, rather than every few years? There’s a lot there that’s going to happen.
The iPad has a lot else going for it — the price is great, it should be great for games and movies, etc, but to me that’s not the game changer. It’s how we interact with information that’s going to be new.